Alfred Cranford was a white planter in Newman, Atlanta. When his worker,
a black man by the name of Sam Hose (Holt), asked for a day off to visit
his sick mom and for a pay advance, he refused. The next day, Cranford
pointed a pistol at Hose and threatened his life. According to a white
detective, Hose then flung an axe in self-defense, killing Cranford.
Within days, newspapers had begun labeling him as "a monster in
human form" who had deliberately snuck up on poor Cranford to bury
an axe in his head, and then proceeded to drag Mrs. Cranford into the
bedroom to rape her. The story may have had some variations, but the
outcome surely did not.

2000 white Georgians watched as Sam Hose (Holt) was chained to a tree,
stripped of his clothes, doused with oil, and then had parts of his body
cut off before finally being set on fire. His body was
cut into pieces and fought for as prized souvenirs. A grocery store
displayed his charred knuckles. A sign was put up next to his ashes the
next day that read, "WE MUST PROTECT OUR SOUTHERN WOMEN." A local newspaper
defended the lynchers, describing them as, "(P)eople intensely religious,
home-loving, and just. There is among them no foreign or lawless element." And like
most, if not all, lynchings, no one was ever prosecuted.